John 1:51 “And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” Today's episode talks all about angels. It talks about the various things I know about angels. It talks about how we each have a guardian angel. It talks about the purpose of these angels. It also gives an example of a miracle that happened when an angel intervened during a car accident. It was amazing. The same can happen with your angel. We just need to ask. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
All about the Angels
John 1:51 “And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
I saw a Bible verse yesterday on Facebook for John 1:5 “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” When I saw this, I thought that would be the verse for today. Then, when I read the chapter of John 1 today, the story of Nathanael stuck out to me instead. I was going to write about his story, and then I came to this line, and I felt like the Holy Spirit said, that is the verse for today. So, I am not sure what the Lord wants to tell us all about angels today, but I am ready for it because I know angels are so amazing. I have heard some pretty incredible stories about how angels have helped people.
The Bible mentions angels 273 times. I was surprised at this. I am not sure why. I guess I just didn’t realize how often they were talked about in the Bible. I went to a “Theology on Tap” night at a local hotel, and the priest was doing a talk about the angels. It was really interesting. He said that each person who is born has a guardian angel and that all the angels were created at the same time. That means God knew from the very beginning of time how many people were going to exist in this world. That seems so crazy to me to think about. I mean, there are billions of people on Earth, and there are more being born each day. To be more precise, there are 140 million babies born all over the world each year. That means there are more than four babies born each minute of each day. That is a lot of angels waiting up there in heaven for a job to do.
Did you know you have a guardian angel? I spoke to a friend one time who said she believed in angels. However, she did not believe that each of us had our own guardian angel. She said that would just be too many angels. Whether we believe it or not, we do, in fact, each have our own guardian angel. Here are a few things I have learned about angels. First, they have to respect our free will. We need to give them permission to work in our lives. If you have not done so, maybe just take a quick second and say, “Guardian angel, I give you permission to work in my life.” Just to make sure they know you approve. Angels work for God; they aren’t going to do anything bad in your life, and I think you would be surprised at the things they can do in your life.
I heard a story that Father Padre Pio, who is a saint, used to send his guardian angel ahead of him into any meetings that he had, and he would ask his angel to talk to the other peoples’ angels and help prepare their hearts so it would be a good meeting. This can work for you, too. When you are walking into a situation where you don’t know what to expect, or you are nervous or anxious, or you are worried the other person won’t be kind, you can send your angel ahead of you to speak with their angel and ask their angel to prepare their heart to hear what you have to say, or maybe soften their heart. I have told people about this before, and they reported good results when they have done it. Give it a try sometime. What have you got to lose?
The second thing I learned about angels is that they want to do things for you. Their whole job is to protect and guide you. They are sitting around waiting for you to ask for their help or for you to put them to work. They are there to guide you, so ask them to help you make decisions, ask them to help keep you on the right path, and ask them to remove obstacles that might get in your way or distract you. You can talk to your angel. You can thank your angel. I am guessing being an angel is a pretty thankless job because we don’t even know most of what they protect us from. If we don’t know what they are doing, it can be hard to thank them for doing it. However, if we are regularly talking with our guardian angel, we can say something like, “Thank you for all you do for me, even if I don’t see it.” Even if you don’t talk regularly, you could thank your angel every so often for all the unseen work they do.
Another thing I know about angels is that they can be in more than one place at a time. So, you could send your angel to go and protect someone else, and yet they would still be with you. For instance, I have a friend who told me every time she passes an accident or sees an ambulance pass by. She will ask her angel to go be with the person in the ambulance to protect and comfort them. This does not leave her unprotected. Her angel is with her as well. This is amazing. You can send your angel to be with your kids or your spouse if you are worried about them. For instance, when your kids are not with you, when they are with friends, when they are in college, or when they move out of the house for the first time. You can ask your angel to be with them and to help guide them to make good decisions. You can also ask your angel to talk with their angel, and the two of them can work together to guide them.
Angels can be a very real protection in times of danger. Here is a story I read in the book “How to Live Like A King’s Kid.” The author was driving down a divided highway and to a meeting. The dividing strip was maybe 20 feet wide. Suddenly, a car coming from the other direction, going about 70, the same speed as he was traveling, started to cross the strip. It was headed straight for him. A 140 mph impact was in the making with him in the middle of it. The car hurtling at him was less than 20 yards away when it suddenly shot straight up in the air and turned upside down. It was a convertible, the top was down, and people flew in all directions. The car landed flat right next to him. He kept driving. He asked the Lord if he should stop, and the Lord said no, keep driving and intercede for those people. He looked back, and there were a lot of others stopping, so he listened. On Sunday, he gave a talk about this and then asked if anyone knew what happened. Three people came up to him and told him the other car’s tire had popped and sent them out of control. However, they were all thrown safely from the car, and although the car was totaled, every person in the car walked away from the accident. That is definitely a miracle. Here is what the author says, “A car traveling straight at you on a level Road does not suddenly jump straight up in the air. From straightforward motion to vertical motion is impossible unless you hit something curved to change the course, and that's what happened in the accident. The car's course was changed when it hit a curved surface, the curved circle of light that prevented darkness from entering and annihilating a king's kid. There were millions of foot-pounds of energy involved, but that's nothing for an angel of the Lord. Hallelujah, when we call upon the King, he works supernaturally to deliver us from trouble.”
This is only one example of how an angel has stepped in front of someone to protect them from danger. I have heard many others. I am sure if you search the internet you will find many examples. Maybe I will do a Witness Wednesday about some angel testimonies. I will work on that for you guys. In the meantime, give your angel permission to work in your life and talk with your angel, even though I don’t think they talk back. Let them know you appreciate all the unseen things they do to keep you safe. When you are in trouble, call upon them. It doesn’t have to be bad trouble, like a car accident. It could be as simple as you don’t have peace about a situation. Ask them to help you find peace. They are there to help, protect, and guide you, and mostly, they are bored waiting for us to ask them to intervene in our lives. It is not a bother to them when we ask for help. They love it. It makes them happy.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to protect all those listening to this episode today. Lord, thank you so much for assigning each one of us a guardian angel. Thank you for not bringing us into this world unprotected. I am sorry that we forgot to call upon them. I am sorry that we don’t all know we have one. Please help us be more aware of our angel. Please put it on our hearts to call on our angel whenever we need anything. We love you, Lord, you are amazing! We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name. Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you would like to join me in person, you are welcome to come to a retreat with me from October 7th-9th in Easton, MA. It will be a great weekend where we will get to know each other, grow in our faith together, and spend some time with our heavenly Father. I hope you will consider joining me. If you would like more information, you can CLICK HERE for retreat info, or you can go to walkboldlywithjesus.com and click on retreat info. I look forward to seeing you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!